Purported pre-sales of the newly announced Kindle Fire by Amazon suggest the tablet is on track to outsell the iPad in first-month sales. If accurate, that’s big — really big. So far, competing brands have done nothing to rival Apple’s splash nor dominance of the growing tablet market. The Fire is the first real competitor. It may not be the first, first, but it is the first with the LOW PRICE!!!

Apple iPad sales are as brisk as ever, of course, but there’s plenty of reason for the excitement surrounding the all-new, color screen, touch-enabled Kindle Fire. To borrow an Apple word, it’s different. But it’s also similar enough to the iPad that a lot of consumers might view it as a worthy alternative — indeed, something better.

Start with reason #1, stop there is you have had enough, but it gets better down the article. Me personally, not too concerned with Amazon specific offerings, I am more concerned how it functions as a general computing pad gadget.

1. Eye-popping affordability. At $199, the Kindle Fire sells for less than half the price of the iPad, which starts at $500. So for every entry-level iPad bought and sold, you could buy two and a half Fires. That alone is turning heads, especially since the previously released and uninspired iPad clones have tried to charge as much as Apple for a much less desired product.

2. A lot more content. Content is king. And iPad may be king of the apps, but Kindle Fire bests it considerably by volume of content. The Fire will have immediate access to the 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books already available on Amazon’s easy-to-browse virtual shelves.

Apple doesn’t cite how many TV shows or songs are available, but the number appears to be far less in annecdotal searches.

Want to rent instead of buy? There’s an app … er, a solution for that, too: 10,000 movies and TV shows can be streamed instantly. Those numbers are huge, and growing everyday.

3. Free storage. If you want to take all your content with you, the entry-level iPad and its puny 16 gig storage drive leaves a lot to be desired. You can buy more, but it’ll cost you. Which is why the Fire’s sales pitch — free cloud storage for all your Amazon content — is so enticing, especially since Amazon is already the no. 1 digital bookstore, the no. 2 mp3 store (behind Apple), and high on the list in other categories.

For content you don’t buy from Amazon, there are about 6 gigs of free space on the Fire to do with as you please.

4. Democratized apps. One of the biggest knocks on the Apple AppStore is that it’s a closed system—if Apple doesn’t like your stuff, no app for you. One of the biggest knocks on the Google Android software powering nearly every other tablet out there is that it’s too open—you’re required to sift through a lot of junk to get to the goods.

The Kindle Fire hopes to bridge that gap with the Amazon Appstore, which remains open like Android, but only makes available the very best and most popular apps from the open market. The result: More free apps without the hassle, the best of both worlds approach.

5. Ergonomics – Easier to hold. The 10-inch iPad is a lot of fun, but hard to handle with one hand due to its weight and size. The 6-inch Kindle reader, on the other hand, is a lot easier to hold. With only one hand, you can hold it for several hours without fatigue. The new 7-inch Kindle Fire promises the same: capable of being held with one hand, lighter than the iPad, and a lot more portable.

Where the compromises are: All of those pros don’t come without sacrifices, however. The Fire’s screen is 3” smaller than the iPad, which might not make it as ideal a device for watching movies or playing HD games (that’s to be seen, though). Furthermore, the Fire lacks a lens and microphone, so it won’t be able to snap photos, shoot video, or accept video calls.

But for $300 less, those are things I bet a lot of people can live without. You already should have a $100 camera, bought from Amazon, natch to do those chores.

The Kindle Fire goes on sale Nov. 15 for $199.

Isn’t that the real reason it’s burning up the charts, and will win in the end???

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, dropped three points on Friday, falling to its lowest reading since January 15. At 72.8, the Consumer Index is down five points from the beginning of the year and is now just one point above the 2010 low.

Among all adults nationwide, just 9% rate the economy as good or excellent, down three points from the beginning of the year. A quarter (23%) of adults feel economic conditions in the country are getting better, an eight point decline since the year began.

Among investors, 9% rate the economy as good or excellent and 26% believe the economy is getting better. Fifty-five percent (55%) of investors believe the economy is getting worse.

Extra credit question, does this dumb jug eared jackass think people are so stupid they can’t figure him out? His Hugo Chavez commie act is now falling on death ears.

The actual unemployment, before the looks better fixes are applied for 2010 Jan-Mar is 16.5% 16.8% 16.9% — yes it’s increasing. The real data is here, look for item U-6. Always best to go to the source, ignore the lame stream media hype and cheering leading breathless drools.

So underemployment is increasing, sigh, up another 0.5% in March 2010. Steadily rising, as Obozo’s socialist policies are destroying the private sector economy.

This sums it up the meaning of underemployment:

As unemployed Americans find part-time, temporary, and seasonal work, the official unemployment rate could decline. However, this does not necessarily mean more Americans are working at their desired capacity. It will continue to be important to track underemployment—to shed light on the true state of the U.S. workforce, and the millions of Americans who are searching for full-time employment.

So if you are a college grad with years experience in your chosen field, and now work at Burger King, that’s what underemployment is.

What we need is less government out out control spending which is doing nothing but bankrupting our country, in the name of economic stimulus and more of the government getting the hell out of the way of the private sector economy.

USAToday informs us that the environment and concerns about it have now hit a 20 year low. Proving the environment and the concerns for same, are a sunshine, good times type of hip thing ? Being environmental freindly on goes so far, and unemployment and recession seems to have taken all the cash people have for that mostly nonsensical crap.

The construction unemployment rate jumped to 27.1% and construction employment dropped to a 14-year low as another 64,000 construction workers lost jobs in February, according to federal employment figures released recently.

Looks like that NObama focus like a laser light on jobs, jobs and jobs is paying off handsomely.